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Hartley was born in New Zealand, but qualifies to play for England through his English mother. He moved to Crowborough, East Sussex in 2002 and enjoyed the game through local teams and the Beacon Rugby Academy, where he competed with English, Scottish and Italian rugby hopefuls before being picked for Sussex and later divisional and England schoolboys.

Hartley captained the Northampton Saints losing sides in the 2011 Heineken Cup Final and also the 2013 English Premiership Final before going on to lift the trophy the following year when Northampton won the 2014 Premiership final against Saracens.

He has been known as an important lynchpin of the Northampton side with powerful performances in the scrum and in the loose.

On 17 December 2014 Northampton Saints announced that Hartley had extended his contract for a further 3 years, despite a more lucrative offer from French side Montpellier, with Hartley citing his desire to remain playing for his only senior club as a deciding factor.

In December 2014 Hartley was banned for another three weeks, bringing the tally over his professional career to fifty weeks. Saints Coach Jim Mallinder has stated that time is running out on Hartley to improve his discipline.

Hartley is well known for his charity work as an ambassador of the Matt Hampson Foundation as well as captaining a team in November 2013, the 'Front Mo Union' which raised in the region of £44,000 for men's health charities.